The present invention relates to a cleaning device in general, and more particularly to a floor-sweeping device of the type in which a cylindrical brush rotates about an axis which is transverse to the direction of movement of the device over the surface being cleaned, the cylindrical brush picking up dirt from the surface and depositing the same into at least one dirt-collecting receptacle.
Such floor-sweeping devices are already known and in widespread use and usually they include a housing in which there are mounted bearing elements for the shafts of driving wheels which rotate in engagement with the surface being cleaned and which drive the cylindrical brush into rotation about its axis. The housing usually includes a rigid circumferential frame, and the bearing elements for the shafts of the driving wheels are usually located in the lateral regions of the housing adjacent to the lateral wall portions of the circumferential frame. The conventional housing further includes a cover which closes that side of the housing which faces away from the surface to be swept during the use of the cleaning device.
In this conventional floor-sweeping device, the bearing elements are constituted as discrete elements which are separate from the housing and also separately manufactured, such bearing elements having guiding and connecting portions. The frame of the housing of this conventional floor-sweeping device then includes complementary guiding portions in which the guiding portions of the bearing elements are received, the connecting portions of the bearing elements connecting the same to the housing and preventing the bearing elements from displacing relative to the housing once they have been assembled with one another.
Experience with this type of floor-sweeping device has shown that the manufacture thereof is rather complex and consequently expensive for several reasons. First of all, it is necessary, in such a conventional floor-sweeping device, to separately produce the frame of the housing of the floor-sweeping device and the respective bearing elements, and then employ a separate assembling operation in which the bearing elements are introduced into the guiding portions of the frame of the housing, properly positioned in such guiding portions, and connected to the frame in such proper positions. On the other hand, the respective components which together form the housing, that is the frame and the bearing elements, must have sufficiently large wall thickness in order for the frame and the bearing elements to have the required rigidity, which is especially true when the various components are made of synthetic plastic material. The consumption of material is further increased by the need for providing the various guiding portions on the frame and on the bearing elements, which guiding portions then either cause or call for a further increase in the wall thickness of the various components. The increased material consumption not only increases the cost of manufacturing the device, but also makes the floor-cleaning device rather bulky, heavy and unwieldy.